Karine Jean-Pierre faced sharp backlash after claiming the trans community is "under attack," just days after the shootings at a Christian school in Tennessee.
"Outnumbered" panelists called out the press secretary’s audacity for the remarks that were made during a White House press conference Thursday following the Nashville school shooting.
"We’re seeing more and more of these hateful bills," Jean-Pierre said Wednesday. "People don't want their freedoms to be taken. They want us to fight for their freedoms. And so it is shameful. It is disturbing. And our hearts go out to the trans community as they are under attack right now. But this is a president who has said many times before he has their backs."
"Outnumbered" co-host Kayleigh McEnany called out the White House for choosing this moment to advocate for the transgender community. Protesters at the Tennessee state capitol building, she added, held up seven fingers to represent seven victims in the mass shooting.
"There are six," McEnany said. "We want to be exceedingly clear here. There were six Christians who were victims of that shooting and one murderer."
Co-host Emily Compagno then addressed Jean-Pierre’s claims, saying the "hateful bills" are actually designed to protect the freedoms of Christians and Americans alike.
"That's the purpose of those bills, by the way. It is to increase and protect freedom from this overbearing, overreaching government under Biden's watch," she said. "It has nothing to do with ‘anti’ or ‘hate,’ no matter what kind of sound bites they try to craft for their small-minded, narrative-crafting brains."
Compagno said it's "horrifying" that Jean-Pierre and others are taking the focus off the Christian victims of the attack.
Bill Hemmer, co-host of "America’s Newsroom," noted that efforts by Republicans like Sen. Marsha Blackburn to provide funding for school resource officers are going "nowhere" under the Biden administration.
Hemmer, however, said another big issue is the lack of information about the motive.
"On Monday afternoon, we were told by the police in Nashville that there is a ton of evidence that was left behind as to why she acted the way she did. Well, it's Friday afternoon and we have seen very little of that evidence," Hemmer said. "Where's the manifesto? Why have we not been told about what is there?"
Martha MacCallum, host of "The Story," called it "disturbing" that the manifesto has not yet been released.
"We've heard it was a targeted attack at a Christian school of these six innocent individuals. They are the victims in this story," she said, referencing the protesters who held seven fingers.
MacCallum explained to the panel that Tennessee already has laws on the books that allow people to prove that someone is a danger to themselves or others and make it very difficult for that person to purchase a firearm. A measure that could possibly prevent situations like the shooting in Nashville.
"This is not about whatever led this killer to take the lives of these people. It has never been about that in our history," MacCallum said.
"Those laws exist at the federal level and in Tennessee. That's what people should be yelling about. … It's about these children, and it's about this killer who took their lives."
